


sugar ain't as sweet

by glittercake



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Bickering, Fluff, Food Fight, Getting Together, Idiots in Love, M/M, Making Out, happy birthday bucky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-22 11:49:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30038259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glittercake/pseuds/glittercake
Summary: It was a joke. Harmless, to be honest, a little fun between him and Sylvia from the bakery. But maybe Sam should have listened to his sister when she said he ain't as funny as he thinks he is.Bucky looks back at the writing on the cake:"Happy Birthday, Asshole. No, don't write that. His name is Bucky."Fucking Sylvia.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Sam Wilson
Comments: 19
Kudos: 284





	sugar ain't as sweet

**Author's Note:**

> A little late for Bucky's birthday but I was inspired [by this amazing art.](https://bicappy.tumblr.com/post/645310898405294080/happy-birthday-to-the-worlds-best-coworker)

"Hey," Bucky grumbles, appearing from the hallway. He's just in a t-shirt and sweats, and his hair looks stupidly pointy from sleep, eyes barely open. Doesn't look at all like someone who is celebrating their 104th birthday today. No, actually, that's exactly what he looks like. Like someone who is way too old on the inside.

Still, this doesn't make the disaster Sam is currently covering with a tea towel any better. People, specifically people at the corner bakery, have absolutely no sense of humor, and now he's stuck with the shit he said in jest on Bucky's birthday cake. 

It was a joke. Harmless, to be honest, a little fun between him and Sylvia on the other end of the line. But maybe he should have listened to his sister when she said he ain't as funny as he thinks he is. 

Bucky turns away from the coffee pot, frowns, and sniffs the air.

"Is that cake?" he eyes Sam, who is using his body to hide the blue and white abomination. "I smell cake." 

Sam shakes his head nearly off its hinges, "No. I don't... There's no cake." He shifts with Bucky's line of sight to hide the cake.

"Aw, Wilson, did you get me a cake—Jesus it's March 10th already?—let me see." He puts his coffee down and comes closer but Sam bats him away.

"Nothing to see, old man!" 

"No, no, I can smell it. Is that vanilla buttercream? Hmm." He sniffs again, "Strawberry filling? A little burnt at the bottom?"

"What? Fuck you, that's so weird, man." Sam pushes the cake out of reach and moves away from Bucky's proximity. Because maybe he's got a little crush, maybe he likes this fool a little bit. But like, nothing serious, the sentiment of the cake means nothing. Anyone would have gotten their enemy turned roommate turned kind of friend a cake for their birthday; it's literally nothing. 

"I'm fucking with you, I can't smell  _ that _ good," Bucky says, not letting up at all and reaching around Sam to grab the tea towel off the cake, "Come on, let me see, huh. What're you hiding?

Sam's two seconds too late, and Bucky gets the towel, tosses it aside and then stops dead in his goofy tracks.

"Look, Buck, that was… I was fuckin' around, and they took me seriously… I didn't; I don't—"

Sam stops talking when Bucky turns to him with the cold wrath of the Winter Soldier in his eyes, a pinning steely glare that makes Sam wish he was back in the soul stone. 

Bucky looks back at the writing on the cake:

_ "Happy Birthday, Asshole. No, don't write that. His name is Bucky."  _

Fucking Sylvia. 

In a swift, shadowy motion, Bucky spins around. Sam thinks he totally fucked up now, and Bucky's storming out on him. But he unsheathes a massive fuck-off knife from the knife block instead. And oh shit, Sam thinks now, this is it, this is how he dies on his crush's birthday. And that's fine. If Captain America is ever going to be taken out, it should be by the hands of Bucky Barnes. It's kind of poetic.

But instead of slicing into  _ him, _ Bucky chops off a big corner of the cake, the one that says "Asshole" and eats it. He keeps looking at Sam but not Winter Soldiery anymore, a little softer now, a little more like what Sam's used to. 

His lips are sugary blue from the frosting when he finally licks his fingers off and cuts off another piece.

"Are you just going to keep staring at me here in this corner while you eat that whole cake?" Sam says irritably, trying to get away, but Bucky blocks him.

"It's good cake," Bucky mumbles, takes another bite, "But this one's for you." 

"I don't want—" 

Barnes is fast; Sam hates him. He gets a hand full of cake smeared all over his face, fucking buttercream and strawberry- gross. What's worse is Bucky wrestles his arm around Sam's neck and grabs a metal hand full of cake, and smashes it into his face again.

Sam screams, wriggles loose by knocking his elbow into Bucky's ribs, grabs his own handful, and lugs it at Bucky too. It hits his cheek with a wet smack and drips down to the ground in two slow blobs. He has the audacity to look stunned. 

"Yeah, what's up!" Sam says, clutching another handful and holding it ready to throw. 

A slow, sneering smirk tugs at Bucky's mouth, hand inching closer to the cake again. Sam hates him so much. What the hell does he even see in this guy? 

There's no thinking about it because they absolutely ruin each other. Bucky comes at him with another blob of cake, this time the one with his name on it, and smears it over Sam's head, down his neck and shirt, and no matter how he struggles and yelps, the shit gets all over him. 

He gets a few good ones in too, Bucky's hair is smeared in it, and he's laughing, and it's adorable, so Sam smears that open-mouthed smile full of cake too. 

By the end of it, the cake is destroyed, clumps of it strewn all over the kitchen, sticking to their bodies, and they're standing only inches from each other, kind of breathless.

They're so close, in fact, that Sam sees the sticky spikes of Bucky's lashes, his mouth lined with blue sugar, clumps of it stuck in his beard… and he's looking at Sam, really looking now, eyes flicking curiously between his eyes and mouth.

Sam's heart pounds hard and thick because he knows this part. This is the part where someone leans forward and kisses someone, and still, when Bucky does it, Sam can't breathe. 

His lips are soft for all the shit they talk. Sam didn't think Bucky actually had the balls to do this, but it's happening. He's slow about it at first, just a sweet testing peck, a quick glance at Sam before he leans back in. Then he's pressing up against Sam, really getting all that sugar off like maybe he's been hungry for this all along.

Sam's mouth opens for him because, of course, it does, because maybe he's been hungry too. Bucky's coarse stubble chafes his skin, and his tongue tastes like the overly sweet frosting, and it makes Sam moan into Bucky's mouth without meaning to. 

At that, Bucky pulls back just a little, eyes still closed with Sam's face cradled in his hands. "Hmm," he says, eyes opening now, "It really is good cake, huh."

Sam snorts unattractively, reaching up to pick a vanilla crumb off Bucky's nose and eat it.

"I got good taste."

"Usually, I'd argue with you, but I'd hate to ruin the moment."

"And also, my taste now includes you, so…" 

"Goddamnit," Bucky grumbles but leans down to pick Sam up in a seemingly effortless move and plant him on the counter instead. "Had to be you, huh?" 

And before Sam can answer, Bucky kisses him again, harder this time, sort of feverishly. His hands come around to Sam's back, and Sam's curl around his shoulders, and it feels goddamn good. The proximity and warmth of their bodies connecting feels like exhaling.

For a brief moment, Bucky leans back, looks at Sam all wide-eyed and stunned, traces his finger over Sam's mouth, and he's suddenly got a very genuine, sincere look in his eyes. No bullshit, no teasing, no smart-ass quip building u behind them. No 'I hate yous.'

"I'm glad it's you." he says quietly.

Sam could mock him for being a sappy bastard, but there's something fragile happening here, and that's pretty new for them. Not unwelcome, just new and unfamiliar. 

Sam decides to try it out too.

"Me too. I'm happy it's us," he says. Unfamiliar or not, it's the goddamn truth. There's no one else he trusts to be this vulnerable with, this open and nakedly honest with.

They kiss a bit longer, because that's new too, it's brilliantly new, but eventually they have to face the mess they made in the kitchen. 

Bucky's grimacing down at it, "We gotta clean this up before Sharon gets here."

Sam reels back, wiggles out of Bucky's hold, "Who is _'we'?_ You started this, Robo boy." 

"And we're back. That's fine. That's fine, Sam. You know what, I'm discussing this in therapy next week. Avoidance of responsibilities or something. Dr. Wesley will have some fancy name for it."

Sam laughs as he turns to get the mop and broom, hands one over to Bucky, and starts clearing the mess on the floor where he's standing. 

"Chill," he says, " Dr. Wesley has been onto us. She'll call this progress." 

Bucky scoops dirty floor cake into the dustpan, "Can't believe you made me go to therapy with you." 

Sam makes a face at him, "I didn't; that was your idea."

"No… it was yours. You said—"

_ "You _ said—"

The front door swings open, "What the _ fuck _ is going on here?"

Sharon's standing in the doorway with a new, nicer, cake in her hands and grocery bags hooked around her arms, staring at the blue and white crumbs all over the kitchen. They both jump and stare at her.

"He threw cake at me," he looks at Bucky, and just as Sharon's shoulders sag with exhaustion, Sam adds, "And then he kissed me."

"Oh, thank god," she says, exhales like she's been suffocating, "That was getting painful to watch." She holds out the new cake to Bucky, "Happy Birthday, Barnes."

"Yeah," Sam slips his hand into Bucky's and smiles, "Happy birthday, old man."

And Bucky, blinking with blue frosting in his lashes, smiles back.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> And, if you liked this, check out my latest chaptered au [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/30019944) I'll be updating weekly :)


End file.
